Improvement in fire-escapes



O. R. MOTT. Fire Escape.

No. 202,115. Patented April 9,1878.

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OATHARINE R. MOTT, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT IN Fl RE -ESCAPES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 202,115, dated April 9, 1878; application filed January 16, 1878.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Mrs. CATHARINE R. MOTT, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Fire-Escapes, of which the following is a specification:

Figure l is a front elevation of a building provided with myimproved fire-escape. Fig. 2 is a vertical transverse section through the wall of the building and through the fire-escape. Fig. 3 is a horizontal section on the line 0 c, Fig. 1; Fig. 4, a vertical section, on an enlarged scale, on the line k k, Fig. 3.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

The object of this invention is to produce a stationary fire-escape, which is inclosed, so as to protect the persons descending within it against the danger of falling off the ladders, and also to afford room for the simultaneous use of the fire-escape by different persons.

I have found that, on the ordinary singleladder fire-escape, females and children, when excited by the danger of a conflagration, will not find a safe means of descending. Their exposed position, the danger of their clothes coming in contact with projecting parts of the building, andtheir inability to allow ascendin g firemen to pass them, will frequentlycause them to let go their hold and drop to the pavements. By my invention this danger is averted.

The invention consists, principally, inconstructing a cageladder against the wall of a building, and in connecting the same with balconies or platforms, so that it may be conveniently reached by the inmates of a burning house, who can descend in safety, and side by side, within the cage-ladder, while the firemen are free to ascend along the outer sides of the cage-ladder.

In the drawing, the letter A represents the wall of a building. B is the cage-ladder, firmly secured against the wall A. The cageladder B is made of twoor more ladders, placed side by side at a right or other angle,

so that they will form a prismatic, semi-cylindrical, or other shaped upright cage, on the horizontal rounds of which persons may ascend or descend.

O O are balconies or platforms, connected to the cage-ladder at proper intervals, to give access to the interior of the cage. A door, a, is or may be hinged. to the cage-ladder, in line with each balcony or platform, to prevent communication except in case of fire, when the door is readily unfastened from the balcony side. Women and children, who could not safely descend along an exposed ladder, will readily escape within the cage-ladder, using the several rounds thereof as supports for their hands and feet. Firemen, meanwhile, can freely ascend on the same ladder, along the outside thereof.

Fig. 3 of the drawing shows clearly the inclosing character of the cage-ladder. In this figure the same is shown to consist of three vertical sections, 1), d, and e, which are at right angles to each other, and placed against the wall A, to form a prismatic passage for the escape of persons from the house; but the cage ladder may also be made V-shaped in crosssection, in which case it will be made of but two sections; or it may be semicircular, or nearly so, and placed against the wall in like manner.

I claim.

1. The cage-ladder B, provided with latera swinging doors, adapted to admit persons escaping from windows, and constructed to form an inclosed upright passage, to constitute a fire-escape, substantially as herein shown and described.

2. The combination of the cage-ladder B, which is constructed to form an inclosed upright passage, with the balconies or platforms 0 and doors a, substantially as herein shown and described.

MRS. O. R. MOTT.

Witnesses A. V. BRrEsEN, F. v. BRIESEN. 

